Everyday Hero: Foster mom takes on more

From left: Alanis Brittain, 16, Patricia Brittain, 20, Misha Espinoza, 23, Dillon Brittain, 8, and parents Greg Brittain, and Christina Brittain and three other siblings make up the family of nine. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

CHRISTINA BRITTAIN

To donate new toys, pajamas or diapers of any size, or to find out about services offered, or to participate in the upcoming Nov. 15 golf tournament, contact: Foster Care Auxiliary Orange County 714-778-3383; fostercareaux.com.

“I tell the kids, with what you've come from, you have two choices. You can say poor me, and feel really bad and depressed, or you can let it not pull you down, but empower you,” says Christina Brittain.

“Yes, these things happened. Use them to make yourself be a better person.”

Christina, 43, sits at an old, brown table at the back of a thrift store owned by the Foster Care Auxiliary in Anaheim, surrounded by stacks of clothing, baby gear, boxes and hangers. She's explaining why she understands the foster kids she meets there: She knows what they've been through. She grew up in Santa Ana in a home where she suffered physical and emotional abuse, and had to struggle with complicated family dynamics.

Talk to her for a short time and it's clear: She's a living example of her own good advice.

Christina could have given up, escaped into drugs or just drifted. She credits her grandmother for being the beacon of love and strength that saved her.

“My grandma Rita was a strong, wonderful woman. She was a giver, and independent,” says Christina.

Christina tries to be that beacon for other kids and families that are going through rocky times.

She and her husband Greg, 46, are caring parents of seven children.

But Christina also looks out for the kids she meets at the Foster Auxiliary Center, a small nonprofit that was started 25 years ago by a group of foster families that banded together for support. Christina volunteered there for six years; today she is the assistant director to Kathy Harvey.

Wait, back up. Seven children?

Yes, and three of them arrived all at once. It happened like this:

When Christina and her husband met more than 14 years ago, they each had two teenage kids. As the kids grew, Christina began to feel the need to have younger ones in the house again.

“We were thinking we'd like to help out a child that needed a home,” she says. “We had extra room, and wanted a child with disabilities. My husband, Greg, coached his kids' soccer teams, so I said to him, ‘Don't you want to have kids for a new team?'” Greg was on board with the idea, and the couple began taking classes on how to be foster parents at the Social Services office in Orange.

Then late one night about eight years ago, Christina's sister showed up at their doorstep, asking if the couple could take care of her three children – Patricia, who was 13, Alanis, 8, and baby Dillon, just 7 months.

The sister, who had a long history of drug and alcohol problems, vanished soon after.

From left: Alanis Brittain, 16, Patricia Brittain, 20, Misha Espinoza, 23, Dillon Brittain, 8, and parents Greg Brittain, and Christina Brittain and three other siblings make up the family of nine. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Dillon Brittain, 8, holds a jar of colored sand created during his parent's wedding ceremony three years ago. Each of the seven children added colored sand to signify that families are integrated like grains of sand that can never be seperated. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
Greg Brittain holds a photo taken on his and Christina's wedding day three years ago with their seven children in attendance. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER
From left: Misha Espinoza, 23, Dillon Brittain, Alanis Brittain, Christina Brittain, Greg Brittain and Patricia Brittain, 20, make a family of nine. Three of the kids are not pictured. ANA VENEGAS, ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

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